There are “wordless voices,” as Foris suggests, and they speak in a variety of ways. Some are heard in music instead of poetry while others are witnessed in the spectacle of a drama or ballet, or they may be perceived in the steps and rhythm of a dance routine. Humans can’t help but find a way to express what profoundly breaks into their inner silences and urges expression for they, being made in the image of a limitless Creator, are innately creative in some way.

As for me an artist or a poet I am not, but the desire to be gifted in such a way inhabits my soul. I’ve tried my hand many times at being both but any real talent for either continues to be imprisoned within me. So now with no “appropriate liberator” in sight I try only with my camera to satisfy the yearning of my incarcerated artist, and from time to time, at least in my own eyes, I achieve a marginal level of success. How could I not for in its vast array of choices, the earth is a wondrous wellspring even with nothing more than a point and shoot camera. As for my jailed poet self, her craving is partially satiated because life and the natural world have a way of writing their own poetry even in a photograph and because accomplished others have published readily, accessible poetic works.

So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. ~Genesis 1:27 ✝

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch’d the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch’d within us, and the heart replies.
~William Cowper

The November morn was cool and crisp, and the solitary man playing the bag pipes was standing against the backdrop of changing leaves and flowing water. The mystical sounds of the “pipes” were drifting along on gentle breezes over the whole of a very large park. It was Veterans Day, and the man may have been playing in remembrance of friends or relatives, but it could have been a salutation to the day’s magnificence as well because his harmonies embodied not only touches of the melancholy but also traces of the celebratory. As I watched transfixed and mesmerized by the sounds, he played on at first unaware of my presence behind him. But soon I realized that between the melodies he was slowly turning in a circle and would soon face me and the ones gathering behind me. It was as if he was wanting to address his elegy and/or hymn of praise to all the earth. At each of his turns we who were witnessing the spectacle seemingly became aware that something sacrosanct was moving through us, moving through the “piper”, moving through the pipes, moving through the trees, moving through the water. More than that, one could not help but feel that the sanctity was moving throughout the whole of Creation that was within the sound of his pipes and our vision. I can’t speak for the other observers, but when the “piper” finished “some chord in unison” with what I’d heard and seen had touched me so deeply that my heart replied with tears of sadness for fallen and wounded patriots everywhere and for the joy I’d felt in the beauty of the “piper’s” music.

**I didn’t attempt to take the bag piper’s photo that day because it somehow seemed like an invasion of his privacy. I decided the one above would be equally appropriate for this post since my sister took it on a beach at Normandy where so many fell in WW II while in pursuit of freedom’s calling.

My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. ~Psalm 57:7 ✝

The foliage had been losing its freshness through the month of August,and here and there a yellow leaf showed itself like a first gray hair…September dressed herself in showy dahlias andsplendid marigolds and starry zinnias.October, the extravagant sister, ordered an immense amount ofthe most gorgeous forest tapestry to make glorious her grand spectacle.~Edited and adapted excerpt from Oliver Wendell Holmes

The first leafy sign of autumn appeared on the Dogwood today, and it triggered a flood of “color” musings in my mind. Chestnut and chocolate! What’s not to love about a season that clears off summer’s calamities, piles delectable hues back on nature’s palette, and calls for a pot of hot chocolate? Lemon and lime! Grasses, flowers, fruits, berries, and even a beastie or two weave fabulous garlands in the sacred temple bound by earth and sky. Maroon and mahogany! Chilling winds induce chemical changes in leaves that conjure up magic shows on woody altars in earth’s forests. Mauve and mulberry! The leaves on maples, oaks, dogwoods, pears, persimmons, and other trees give birth to colorful, parchment-like jewels that will one day snap off, swirl in little eddies, and play like children upon the ground. Orange and ochre! Pumpkins made to squat on porches or bales of hay tickle the fancy of mortal tongues anxiously awaiting fall feasts and winter banquets. Red and russet! Roses, asters, and Maximilian sunflowers invoke a breath of spring not stifled by summer’s heat to keep the year’s last child in colorful array. Sable and sapphire! Skies often shrouded by gauzy, gray clouds are swept clear by northerly winds as cold fronts advance. On such days a spectacular brilliance can be seen on the brows of morn followed by daylight hours drenched in deep, dreamy shades of blue. Sterling and pewter! Plumed grasses shift and sigh in authorship of haunting, autumnal hymns. Ah, how lovely are the many colors of autumn and the Holy One who made them!

As long as earth endures, seedtime and harvest (spring and autumn), cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. ~Genesis 8:22 ✝